Melissa Dennett couldn't have asked for a better end to 2022 or start to 2023.
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The Tamworth trainer bookended the year with winners at Gilgandra's New Year's Eve meeting and then Inverell on New Year's Day.
After Speed Match saluted at Gilgandra on Saturday, Dennett didn't have to wait long for her first winner for 2023 with Haiku Star taking out the first race of Inverell's Cup Day meeting.
It's the first time she can recall having a winner on New Year's Day or New Year's Eve, let alone on both.
"It's rewarding," she said.
"We're only a small stable, we only have myself and my partner and a couple of staff."
There weren't plans for any big celebrations on Sunday night. Rather a well-earned rest was in order after a busy couple days.
Dennett wasn't trackside to see Speed Match's win, with partner Brody handling the race day duties there while she "stayed home with the kids". But she was there to see Haiku Star (with Mikayla Weir onboard) break through for his maiden win in the Bede Thomas Memorial Country Boosted Maiden Plate (1050m).
It was reward for Dennett's patience with him.
She originally purchased the now thee-year-old as a 'Breeze-Up' horse (you train them up and resell them at a Ready2Race sale)
"I've done it before and had a little bit of success," she said.
"But when I got him home he was clearly not the right type.
"You need a horse that's going to get up and go early. He needed time to grow and develop."
So she decided to hold onto him and syndicate him out, and "let him mature into himself."
"The owners have been wonderful, they've never questioned anything," she told Thoroughbred Central post-race.
She said he has "always shown potential" and has been continually improving but admitted it was "a little bit of a surprise" to "see what he did".
A pretty much front-running effort, at one stage out in front by himself by about three lengths, Dennett told Thoroughbred Central she was "a bit worried he'd get lost".
"But he just kept going," she said.
Vocation (Ian Cook) and Outback Ringer (Cody Morgan) were coming at him over the final strides but he held them off.
Saturday was likewise Speed Match's first win and followed a last start second at Moree at their twilight Christmas meeting.
"He was unlucky not to win last start," she said, adding that it "was just rewarding to get that win for the owner".
He has been with the stable from the start.
Dennett has only had Speed Match for three starts after picking the three-year-old up from Clint Lundholm.
She wasn't the only Tamworth trainer to start the year on a winning note with Troy O'Neile's Cassy's Sister taking out the SOS Phone Repairs Inverell Shorts (1050m).
It was also a memorable day for newly-minted apprentice Braith Nock, riding Just Strolling to victory for Brett Cavanough in the Campbell's Fuel Country Boosted benchmark 58 Handicap (1050m).
The son of Tamworth trainer Jane Clement, it was his-ever race ride.
"I'm pretty lost for words really," he told Thoroughbred Central after the race.
